Community tourism in the Welsh Valleys

By Steve Keenan

I nearly saw the future of community tourism last week. It is tantalisingly close, and I do keenly hope that it comes to fruition.

The premise is simple. A decade ago, Capital Region Tourism was set up to promote tourism to the Welsh Valleys. It was one of four regions established in Wales by the devolved Government.

And one initiative created in 2009 was The Valleys Heart and Soul, with a brief to encourage communities to “understand how to make the Valleys a successful, proud and culturally diverse area and to increase levels of tourism, make citizens proud of where they live and raise aspirations.”

The project was only launched thanks to £22m EU funding for the region, of which £2m was earmarked for community tourism. Says CRT’s regional strategy director, Peter Cole: “No-one was quite sure what that would look like, or mean at the time.”

Now the concept is being adopted worldwide, with social media underpinning the ability of a community to tell their own story widely. To put themselves on the map, if you will, and determine how they want to be seen.

It’s a concept I love: self-determination, sustainability and social all wrapped into one emboldening story. Which is why I came to be at a conference in Port Talbot last week, to catch up with the CRT’s community tourism programme.

Read the background Storify page on the community tourism conference

Cole told delegates: “We began to understand, eventually, that there were other ways of doing things. I looked at how we could tell the Valley story much better - and people of The Valleys are the key element of the visitor experience.”

The Heart and Soul campaign name came from Valley residents themselves, he said - “they gave us our USP (Unique Selling Point).” Now more than 400 people who work in tourism have been trained as ‘ambassadors’ for the region, representing 150 local tourism-related organisations.

The two-day courses are designed to address two main points: customer care and service, and giving ambassadors the confidence to talk about their place. Trainer Ruth Taylor-Davies said: “We taught them to look at their area with fresh eyes. If you are behind the concept, visitors will be too.”

Three community tourism officers now ‘handle’ the ambassadors, including Elen Davies, who told the conference: “Nearly 60% of ambassadors say they work in a job where they welcome visitors.” That includes working in country parks, whisky distilleries and former coal mines. Even a nun has been trained - Sister Anna Larkins at Llantarnam Abbey in Cwmbran.

So far, so good. I met several impassioned ambassadors, including Wayne Jones of Dare Valley Country Park who will give you guided walks of the park, and Phil Brown of The Barn B&B in Margam who is happy to take guests to his local pub.

I heard about big developments in mountain biking tracks, spoke to enthusiastic climber Luke Maggs of Natural Resources Wales and met inspirational speaker James Turner of Hidden Britain, a charity set up 10 years ago to promote community tourism.

But, but… the EU funding runs out soon and in cash-strapped times, the EU and Welsh government can’t, and shouldn’t, necessarily be relied on to fund further. As Chris Garner, Head of Regeneration Policy at the Welsh Government, told the conference: “We can’t pin down where the money is coming from… but if you have confidence, a Minister will find money.”

The initiative has done too much already to fall by the wayside. Further funding is welcome but more needs to be done to better promote the ambassadors, to bring their personal stories alive on The Valleys website (with video, live chats, bookable links), while the project could be so expanded in so many ways.

Personally, I would love to watch the video of Wayne Jones walking his country park, to hear his story of the regeneration of old coalpit land, and to book a walk with him personally with a picnic on a ridge. And then to stay in a self-catering pit cottage, to dine with the neighbours and hear mining stories in the pub - preferably the one where Richard Burton drank, and follow his trail the next day.

The money then stays in the community, to create jobs and to fund future developments. It stops people leaving the community and brings skills back in. It makes communities work better together and learn to take responsibility for their own future.

All is possible, and practical, and The Valleys is not a million miles off making it happen. It’s a region packed to the gunwhales with stories and the ambassador scheme is excellent - the hard work has been done in finding the voices of the region. But they need to be better harnessed, to be more accessible and to have a collective voice.

Then with private sector money and guidance from the CRT and its tourism partners, then The Valleys really could be alive with the sound of visitors. Let’s hear it!